Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-12-30


| was greatly interested in the one negro
in this miserable place. He was very
friendly and anxious to be of service to us
in any possible way. Some days after my
arrival he was taken out and brought back
again after an hour or so, seeming to be in
a good deal of suffering. His story, which
he gave us if it were the most ordinary
thing in the world moved me to indigna-
ton which would gladly have expressed
in some way more vigorous than words.
He was arrested and imprisoned on sus-
picion of being fugitive slave. The law
in such cases did not put the burden Of
proof on the person arresting, but on the
negro. Aeck had been treated as law and
custom provided. He was first carefully
examined, and whipped till he made some
kind of confession; then he was put in
Jail, and advertised in accordance with
that confession. If a master appeared and
proved property, he was obliged to pay all
Jail and whipping fees, costs of adverts-
ing and Il liberal reward to the person ar
resting; and then, usually flogging the
negro numerically for the trouble and
expense he had caused, he could take his
property. But if no answer came to the
advertisement, it was taken for granted
that the negro lied and he was brought
out and 1ogged into n new confession
after which he was remanded to Jail and
again advertised. Thus they continued
if no master appeared, flogging and adver-
Using, for n year, when the poor fellow
was sold at public auction, and the pro-
ceeds applied to pay the expenses of all
these barbarOus inflotionsl No trial was
allowed by which the negro might prove
himself free. When once arrested, unless
he happened to have some powerful white
friend, his doom was sealed; and in this
way, in the old slavery times, many a
freed negro found his way back into bond
age.
No answer having been received to the
advertisement for Aleck, he had been
taken out for one of his periodical whip
pings. He had now been in this prison
for seven months, and was to remain five
more, with no prospect but that of being
sold into perpetual bondage. We pitied
him from the bottom of our hearts, and
are glad to believe that if he lived, tho
triumph of the Union armies relieved him
from his dreadful position. These things
were not all ascertaned on the same even
ing, though several of them We're, for did
all l could TO get a complete mastery Of
my surroundings, that | might be ready
chances We're slight indeed. The floor
and the walls were OF solid oak, many
inches thick; a circle of guards was all
the time on duty outside; and the only
cgress was by means of ladder put down
in the presence of the jailer and a strong
guard
AS we were talking in the darkness, we
heard the tramp of many feet on the out
side stairway, with the clank of chains
and listened to learn what next was
coming to pass. The noise came over
head, and then the trap door opened and a
stream of comparatively cool air poured
down from the room above, and drew in
through our narrow windows. We
breathed with a sense of indescribable re-
lief-drinking in the air as the desert
traveller drinks from the mountain brook!
oh! what luxury it would be, if that
trap door could only be kept openl 1t
might have been if our life or comfort had
been valued by those in authority.
A number of men were seen above by
the feeble glmmer of the jailer's candle,
and the long ladder was thrust down and
seized by man below to prevent it from
striking some head and it was clear that
others were being sent down. The Ten
nesseeans cried out: Don't put any more
down here. We're FULL Well die if any
more are put down."